EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS

The European Parliament became directly elected in 1979. The aim was that all elections would eventually take place using proportional representation (PR) rather than majoritarian systems. On its election in 1997, the Labour government decided to implement a regional party list system for these elections.

The idea of the regional party list system is that the nation is divided into regions for which the party headquarters choose lists of candidates. The form of this regional list is 'closed', as the electorate does not get a choice of candidates but only parties. The party headquarters decide on the priority of their candidates. The higher up the list candidates appear, the greater the chance they have of being elected.